A women’s rights campaigner a has called for male-only Tube carriages, saying ‘the majority of men’ are the issue.
Patsy Stevenson – who was arrested by the Met Police while attending the vigil of Sarah Everard – said that a male-only Tube carriage would be a better solution than a female-only one.
In response to a recent campaign by a UCL student for women-only carriages on the Tube, Ms Stevenson told Sky News: ‘It’s strange that that’s seen as a solution. For me I think a solution would be combating the actual issue, which is men.
‘I think actually the issue is men, so maybe we need a man-only carriage where we put them all in the back of the train and then they can just stay there and harass each other,’ the campaigner said.
When challenged by presenter Wilfred Frost, who said that surely the problem ‘could not be the majority of men’, Ms Stevenson said: ‘That would be lovely if it was a small minority, unfortunately it’s definitely not.
‘The defensiveness that you’re feeling now is great to see on TV actually – so this defensiveness that a lot of men have of ‘oh it’s not all of us, I’m a good guy’ – that sometimes hinders progression of women’s rights.
‘I think 98 per cent of women have reported being sexually harassed and assaulted, it’s not just random men on the Tube, it’s not just random monsters or by ghosts, it’s men every time,’ she added – without saying which source she was quoting from.
Her comments follow the launch of a petition by 21-year-old UCL student, who called for women-only carriages on the Tube and for Sadiq Khan and TfL to ‘do more to protect women’.
Patsy Stevenson pictured being arrested in 2021 while attending the peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard, who was murdered by off-duty Met Police constable Wayne Couzens
Ms Stevenson, a prominent women’s rights campaigner, has called for man-only Tube carriages
The change.org petition, now signed by more than 13,000 people, asked that at least one dedicated women-only carriage be introduced on every tube line in an attempt to curb gender-based harassment on the underground.
But not everyone agreed with Ms Steveonson’s counter proposal of a man-only tube.
One user on X responded: ‘Patsy Stevenson claiming ‘almost all men’ are misogynists on Sky News isn’t helping [the] cause. It is getting close to hate speech’.
Another commented: ‘Wow. Saying that basically all men are responsible for a lack of women’s safety on the tube, and not just a small minority of wronguns.’
The latest Girlguiding survey found that more than half of girls and young women aged 11 to 21 feel unsafe travelling alone on public transport.
It comes as there were 2,671 sexual offences across TFL services between 2023 and 2024, not including those that went unreported to the police. This marks a 10.5 per cent increase from the previous years.
Women-only carriages have already been implemented in a number of countries. Japan, for example, introduced women-only train cars in the early 2000s to combat sexual harassment.
In cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, these particular trains can be identified by pink or purple signs on the train doors and specific markings on the floor.
Some argued her comments did not help the cause
Camille Brown’s petition urges Sadiq Khan and TfL to ‘do more to protect women’ after saying harassment on public transport has become a ‘growing issue’ in the capital
In the UK, there have been some improvements made to try and help women and girls feel safer on public transport.
In November 2024, the Met installed CCTV cameras at a further 15 bus shelters across the city, focusing on quiet locations with a high footfall and a history of reported crime.
Shortly after Camille’s petition went live, Transport for London announced that it would not be considering women-only tube carriages.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of security, policing and enforcement, made a statement noting how the priority is to work closely with the police and use intelligence to determine hot spots and target repeat offenders.
The statement read: ‘We do not support any proposal for female-only train carriages on TfL services, but instead are working closely with the police to ensure our capital’s transport network is a hostile place for offenders, including the use of intelligence-led policing operations to target offenders and hotspot locations.’
